York hikers survive ordeal on Colorado peak

Saturday

Sep 14, 2013 at 2:00 AM

YORK, Maine — Two hikers from York who were trapped overnight in whiteout conditions in the Rocky Mountains have made their way down from the summit to rescuers, according to the brother of one of the hikers.

Susan Morse

YORK, Maine — Two hikers from York who were trapped overnight in whiteout conditions in the Rocky Mountains have made their way down from the summit to rescuers, according to the brother of one of the hikers.

At about 3 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Friday, Suzanne Turell, 33, and Connie Yang, 32, made it down 14,259-foot Longs Peak, among the highest in Rocky Mountain National Park, to relative safety, according to Turell's brother, David, of Durham, N.H.

The women still needed to get to a trailhead, said Turell, who added he wasn't able to speak with his sister. The Durham man said he was contacted via e-mail by a park ranger.

Rangers said they were taking the hikers from a trailhead in the Wild Basin area of Rocky Mountain National Park to Grand Lake, Colo. — the only way out of the park Friday.

Flooding closed Rocky Mountain National Park and made passage to the base entrance at Estes Park impossible, according to Patrick O'Driscoll, a public affairs specialist for the National Park Service in Denver, Colo.

"All of these areas are cut off by flooding," O'Driscoll said earlier on Friday. "There is no way to drive into Estes."

Thousands in Colorado have been evacuated from the floodwaters.

Suzanne Turell's father, Michael, of Frederick, Md., said he learned of the hikers' rescue third-hand or even fourth-hand. "They hiked down to an area that was inaccessible (due to flooding). They're in a safe location," he said.

Family members have been told the hikers are in good shape, considering their ordeal.

"We are relieved," David Turell said.

Michael Turell said, "It is a major, major relief, because this type of thing can go so bad, so fast. If you get wet, you're dead."

David Turell said he also worried whether the women had dry clothing. They were not prepared for hiking in cold weather, he said.

At 9 a.m. Thursday, Suzanne Turell texted, "We need help," as she and Yang became trapped at 13,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains.

They had been backpacking on Longs Peak when they sent the text saying they couldn't move due to the storm and would spend a day trying to wait it out, according to the text. The women texted their GPS coordinates.

The text was the last family heard from the couple as their cell phone died, according to David Turell. "They were stuck on the mountain; bad weather came in quickly," he said. "They were concerned about hypothermia."

David Turell, other family members and Dover, N.H., sporting goods manufacturer NEMO Equipment Inc., where the women work, pushed the National Park Service in Colorado to send rescue teams and a helicopter to the area prior to another storm predicted for the weekend.

"They're calling it the storm of the century in Colorado," NEMO spokeswoman Kate Ketschek said.

Two search-and-rescue parties went out from Boulder, Colo., and Larimer County, she said.

NEMO contacted the media in Colorado, reached out to a park service incident commander and was in contact with Colorado representatives, according to Ketschek.

"The company has been in full force contacting everyone they knew," she said after learning the women were safe. "We're exhausted but extremely excited. These women are family."

Suzanne Turell has worked for NEMO since its founding in 2002, and Yang came on shortly thereafter, the company spokeswoman said.

Turell is the director of product design at NEMO and Yang the director of engineering, according to the company's Web site. Turell graduated from Princeton University and the Rhode Island School of Design, while Yang graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Loughborough University in the United Kingdom. Both are avid hikers and surfers.

Surfing and NEMO brought his daughter to York, Michael Turell said.

The couple lives in an 1870s house with an attached barn that is being converted to an art studio, he said.

Michael Turell said the women were due back two days ago.

"They've had no food for two days," the worried father said prior to learning the hikers were safe. He voiced obvious frustration with unsuccessful attempts to have the park service order a helicopter to drop off supplies.

"Unfortunately, there is a natural disaster going on in the exact same area," Michael Turell said. "Their priority is down at the bottom, we're trying to get their attention. They keep saying we can't land a helicopter. Just drop a package with a radio cell phone and blanket."

It's unknown whether a break in the weather or another circumstance allowed Turell and Yang to hike down the mountain.

Both women are experienced hikers, according to family members.

Suzanne Turell has been backpacking since the family began taking her on wilderness trips when she was 3 months old, her father said.

Since that time, "she's hiked several thousand miles," Michael Turell said. "These are people who knew what they doing and they were lucky."

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